Three countries working together to protect our shared environment

Explore data for pollutants transferred from facilities in one country to facilities in another country.

Select one of the following report types to explore release and transfer data. You can also ungroup your results (e.g., by pollutant, by industry). To further refine your query, choose from among the options in the following drop-down menus. When you have completed your selection, click “Submit.”

On the results page, you can explore the data in various ways – e.g.:

Click on an underlined name or term in the results table(s)

For certain types of reports (e.g., Facility), click on a point in the inset map

Click the “Show/Hide Columns” tab in the results table to see additional details.

You can also click the “Export” tab to download the data in various formats (e.g., Excel spreadsheet, KML file for viewing in Google Earth).

If you wish to change your selection, click any element in the “Query Results” summary in the upper left corner of the page, then click “Apply.”

Report Type

Facility Report: Names and locations of facilities that reported releases and transfers.

Results and how to use them:

A list of all facilities with the amount reported by each facility

Click on a facility name to get a breakdown of all pollutants (and amounts) reported

View the facility location on the map inset

Download the data

Industry Report: Releases and transfers reported by a particular industry or industries.

Results and how to use them:

The industry(ies) reporting and the amount reported by industry

Click on the industry name to get a breakdown of amounts reported by state/province/territory, pollutant, and facility

Download the data

Country Report: Reported releases and transfers in the selected country(ies).

Results and how to use them:

The country(ies) reporting and the amount reported by country

Click on the country name to get a breakdown of amounts reported by state/province/territory, pollutant, and industry

Download the data

State/Province/Territory Report: Reported releases and transfers by state, province or territory in the country(ies) selected.

Results and how to use them:

The state/province/territory(s) reporting and the amount reported by region

Click on the state/province/territory name to get a breakdown of amounts reported by pollutant, industry, and facility

Download the data

City Report: Reported releases and transfers in the selected city(ies).

Results and how to use them:

The associated city(ies), and the amount reported by city

Click on the city name to get a breakdown of amounts reported by pollutant, industry, and facility

Download the data

Watershed: Reported releases and transfers in the selected Watershed(s).

Results and how to use them:

The associated watershed(s), and the amount reported by watershed

Click on the watershed name to get a breakdown of amounts reported by pollutant, industry, and facility

Download the data

Pollutant Report: Pollutants reported released and transferred. Note: For air and water releases, check the "TEP values" box to see the risk scores available for certain pollutants.

Toxic Equivalency Potentials (TEP) for Air and Water Releases

Toxic Equivalency Potentials (TEPs) indicate the relative human health risk associated with a release of one unit of a pollutant, compared to the risk posed by the release of one unit of a reference substance. TEPs are calculated using the CalTOX model, developed by California regulatory agencies. TEPs are one of many different screening tools, each of which is based on a series of assumptions, thus yielding different results.

Readers should note that the TEP analysis is limited in that a release does not directly correlate to actual exposures or levels of risk. In addition, not all of the substances have an assigned TEP (information on their toxicity or exposure potential may be missing). While these pollutants are not ranked by TEP, they should not be assumed to be without risk. Other types of releases not ranked by TEP (e.g., land) should also not be assumed to be without risk.

TEPs are available only for air and water releases. The reference chemical for carcinogens is benzene and the reference chemical for non-carcinogens is toluene. In the Taking Stock report and database, the TEP weight is multiplied by the amount of release to provide a score for each pollutant. The TEPs for Taking Stock have been taken from the Scorecard website

Results and how to use them:

The pollutants reported and the amounts reported

Click on a pollutant name to get a breakdown of amounts reported by state/province/territory, industry, and facility

Download the data

Ungroup results based on:
PollutantIndustryCountry

Year

Facilities report the amounts of each pollutant they have released to the environment at their own location (on site). They also report how much of the substance was sent off-site for disposal, or transferred for recycling or other waste management. Each country's PRTR has evolved with its own list of pollutants, sector coverage, and reporting requirements. For more information, see : Using and Understanding Taking Stock

Location

Country

State/Province/Territory

City(Select a State/Province/Territory to choose from a list of Cities)

Level II (and III where applicable)Note that there are Level III watersheds only in the Mississippi River System (i.e., Mississippi Sub-Basins).

Level IV

The pollutants subject to national PRTR reporting requirements are listed because they meet certain criteria for chemical toxicity and the potential for risk to human health and the environment. Each PRTR system covers a specific list of substances, or groups of substances. To see the list of pollutants reported to the North American PRTRs, please consult: [Excel]. Note: Certain pollutants, such as metals, are grouped in Taking Stock (e.g.: "lead and/or its compounds"). Therefore, no CAS number is assigned to the group.

Certain pollutants have lower reporting thresholds due to their greater potential for risk to human health and the environment. You can see the thresholds that apply by hovering over the pollutant names in the drop-down menu, or by consulting the above-mentioned PRTR pollutants list.

It is important to remember that PRTR data alone cannot provide enough information to assess the potential harm from a pollutant; however, the data, in combination with other information about a pollutant, can serve as a starting point for learning more about its potential impacts. See: Using and Understanding Taking Stock

In order to provide more information about PRTR pollutants, the Taking Stock report and online database also categorize them as follows:

Known or suspected carcinogens – based on the World Health Organizations' International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) Proposition 65 list

Persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) substances – which have properties that render them a long-term environmental and health threat, even in small quantities

Metals – Metals occur naturally, but human activities such as mining and smelting enlarge their proportions in the environment. The toxicity of certain metals and their compounds can depend on the forms they take in the environment.

All data on releases and transfers reported in the three countries are accessible through Taking Stock Online, with the exception of criteria air contaminants (CAC) and greenhouse gases (GHG), two groups of pollutants for which important differences among national reporting requirements exist. More information

Pollutant

Show results only for the pollutants common to the countries and year(s) selected

Pollutant Type

Pollutant

Canada, Mexico and the United States have adopted the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), whose codes are used to categorize the industrial activities of a facility. Although there is some variation among the three countries in the subsector categorizations and codes used, the breakdown of industrial sectors into general categories is the same:

NAICS code

Industry

11

Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting

21

Mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction

22

Utilities (electricity, water and gas distribution)

23

Construction

31/32/33

Manufacturing

41/42/43

Wholesale trade

44/45/46

Retail trade

48/49

Transportation and warehousing

51

Information and cultural industries

52

Finance and insurance

53

Real estate and rental and leasing

54

Professional, scientific and technical services

55

Management of companies and enterprises

56

Administrative and support, waste management and remediation services

61

Educational services

62

Health care and social assistance

71

Arts, entertainment and recreation

72

Accommodation and food services

81

Other services (except public administration)

91/92/93

Public administration

PRTR reporting requirements are based in part on the industrial activity undertaken within a facility, and not only the industry code assigned to that facility. Therefore, not all facilities within a given sector might have to report. For example, within the economic sector that includes dry-cleaning only those facilities undertaking the actual dry-cleaning process, and not clothing drop-off points, might be required to report. Another example is a food processing plant that is required to report because it has its own power plant to generate electricity.

Readers should also note that facilities with similar activities can report under different, or multiple, NAICS codes, depending on the activities undertaken at the facility.

Taking Stock Online provides data at the 3-, 4- and 5-digit NAICS code level. In some cases, the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes differ among the three countries. For example, the code for Wholesale Trade is 41 in Canada, 42 in the United States and 43 in Mexico. When querying data for an industrial sector whose code begins with any of the 2 digits below, the results returned might include only partial data. Therefore, you might also wish to consult the data reported under the corresponding codes provided.

Industrial Sector Name

Corresponding Codes in each Country(for the series starting with the 2 digits indicated)

Canada

Mexico

United States

Wholesale Trade

41

43

42

Retail Trade

44, 45

46

44, 45

Public Administration

91

93

92

North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)

NAICS-3

NAICS-4

NAICS-5

Industry

Sector DescriptionCode

On-site releases or disposals occur at a facility. These include:

Releases to air;

Releases to surface water;

Releases to underground injection;

Disposals or land releases.

Off-site disposal: describes pollutants sent to off-site locations for disposal.

Transfers to recycling describes substances sent off-site for recycling.

Transfers for further management includes pollutants (other than metals*) sent off-site for treatment, energy recovery, or to sewage.

*A note about metals: Quantities of metals reported as sent off-site for sewage, treatment or energy recovery are included in the off-site disposal category – since these metals may be captured and removed from waste and disposed of in landfills or by other methods. This approach recognizes the physical nature of metals and the fact that they are not likely to be destroyed through treatment.

Note: Because this terminology is specific to Taking Stock, the terms release and transfer as defined here may differ from their use in NPRI, RETC and TRI.

Release and Transfer Types

Release and Transfer Types

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Values reported in pounds are converted to kilograms using a conversion factor of 2.205

Values reported in tonnes are converted to kilograms using a conversion factor of 1000

CONTACT

** Quantities of metals reported as transferred off-site for sewage, treatment, or energy recovery are included in the "Off-site Disposal" category, since these metals may be captured and removed from waste and disposed of in landfills, or by other methods. This approach recognizes the physical nature of metals and the fact that they are not likely to be destroyed through treatment.

The national PRTR datasets are constantly evolving, as facilities revise previous submissions to correct reporting errors or make other changes. For this reason, the three countries 'lock' their data sets on a specific date and use the 'locked' data for annual summary reports. Each year, the countries issue revised databases that cover all reporting years. The CEC follows a similar process. For the purposes of this database, the NPRI dataset from September 2017, the TRI Basic Data Plus dataset from October 2017 and the RETC dataset from January 2018 were used. Readers can visit the national PRTR websites to see if any changes to the data have occurred.